The T2K Model and Miniture Thread!

[DCausey]

Hi guys, we were talking in the intro thread about my modelling hobby and ideas for T2K miniatures both for gaming and in standard 1/35th scale model kit displays and dioramas. I think both ideas offer a lot of scope for creativity and individualization of otherwise "standard" Cold War and Modern model kits.

I have in mind 1/72 scale figures and kits for actual RPG play aids, do to cost and size/playability issues. Plus, 1/72 offers a lot of scope for tanks, soldiers and IFVs for gaming.

My other big interest is "traditional" 1/35th scale displays just for sheer scope of detailing and customizations. The larger size allows for extreme detail, down to rifle scopes and knives, and there are many,many tanks, trucks, IFVs and soldiers available.

What do y'all think? Is this something you'd be interested in discussing? Got any ideas for dioramas?

[Raellus]

I dabbled in military modelling as a kid. My brother got really good at painting them. As we got older, we kind of gave it up. I regret that sometimes.

I'd love to see other people's work, though. Please post your pics here.

[atiff]

I used to wargame and model-make in scales from 1/35 to 1/300, although not for diorama purposes. I admire dioramas, but rarely make them myself.

For T2K games, I have used 1/72 plastics for battle depictions before. I've also used Lego, since you can has together your own vehicle representations

For a T2K diorama idea, here are a few:
- Gun trucks. Check out the thread active on the forum at the moment.
- Going Home. A US soldier sitting down reading a hard copy of the order.
- Acquisition. A soldier performing the age-old method of acquiring arms and ammo - from the body of a fallen enemy.

Would like to see any work that people do like this.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I want to build my LAV-25 from Paper Tiger...'course I got no T2k game and am entirely unlikely to *have* one

[DCausey]

Atiff, those are great ideas for dioramas.

rakete, I hear ya' man. I have no idea when,or if, I'll ever get to run T2K. I'd love to see that LAV-25.

My idea right now is a party of T2K characters with a M1A1 Heavy Common tank and a captured Russian truck with a still. I see lots of stowage and battlewear on the tank, a mix of US and Russian-made weapons, and at least 1 female figure in the diorama.

[B.T.]

Well, I'm not shure, if this will work. But I'll try to show you a miniature, that I've done for T2k about 14 years ago.


Just a minute later:
As you see, it did not work. Can anyone give me a hint, how to upload jpg-pics? Nevertheless, I'll keep on trying. I'd really like to show some of my minis.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Has anyone here ever kitbashed a LAV-75 together?

I'm thinking you could do it with a cut-down M113 hull, then use the bitz to build up the turret and custom-build a gun.

DCausey, here's the Paper Tiger Armaments LAV25



They've dived into the Cold War stuff recently, producing some oddball type vehicles that should really appeal to T2k gamers because they're unusual ones. Let's face it: anybody can say their team has an Abrams or LAV25 or what-have-you, it takes guts to say that your group was afoot until they overran a Soviet category-C unit and now has a BTR-50-PU as their main track!

[natehale1971]

i have 1/16th figures that I collect (when i have the money). I've gotten things for dioramas that I've wanted to make... but due to costs, i've had to put those on hold. The figures are all waiting for the rest of the stuff i was going to put in for their scenes.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Also, who still does "modern" USAEUR 25mm/28mm minis? Devil Dog had a nice selection, IIRC, but they folded so...(and yes I have googled that)

[DCausey]

B.T. , I think if you upload your photos to Photobucket and link from the [IMG] code would be the easiest way. I can't wait to see your stuff!

Rakete, those paper kits are awesome! The LAV looks great, but I love that BTR! A LAV-75 should be an easy bash. Let me look, I know some sources that should have 25/28mm Moderns.

natehale, those 1/16ths must be superb! Who makes them?

- Dave

[natehale1971]

These are the ones I've used...

Dragon (they use to be the gold standard, esp for WW2 figures)
Dragon in Dreams (different company from Dragon)
BBI (they make the best body all around, and the quality of their asscessories and uniforms is superb... they make some of the best modern uniforms, weapons and equipment)
CY GIRLS BBI (they make the best female body's for the 1/16th scale)
and if you want the BEST of the BEST (and have the money for it) you go to Sideshow figures.

[Graebarde]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when I got involved in T2k, we met at a friends place. Now the first session there was a real eyeopener. This fellow rented a WHOLE apartment for his hobby, in addition to the apartment across the hall where he actually lived.. granted it was cost effective for him. He use to own a hobby shop, and worked at one when I met him. Anyways, we used 1/87, 1/72, and 1/90 scale, mostly 1/87. His game layouts turned into giant dioramas.. we gamed on FIVE 4x8 sheets of plywood, complete with hills, woods and buildings..

Picture 1/3 of the layout a section of Krakow, complete with walls and buildings.. people on the street... and if you checked out a house, the roof came off and you would find items IN the building...

He could field a mechanized battalion and tank battalion of US, Soviet, German or British at any one time, at a 1:1 in vehicles, all detailed and weathered.. or perhaps you wanted to play Vietnam era.. or WW2?? He had boxes and boxes of models, most finished, some still in plastic.. and books on everything... A fellow gamer inherited all the stuff when Gene passed. RIP Gene.

I built a fleet of water line boats including the Vistuala tug.. in 1/96
(8 ft/inch). Our going home was on commandeered schooner and ketch from the Baltic ports.. along with the tug and 100-ft barge. Mine were depictions, not really models, as the detail was not fine enough, but we sure had fun with them. My grandson wound up with them when he was about 14.. our third generation twilight gamer

As an aside, I remember the day he was reading the big yellow book and asking questions when his mom (my daughter) walked in.. "WHAT is he reading?" she asked.. "T2K" says I. "ARRRRRRGHH.. not another one!!" she cried in anguish.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Holy cats, Empress has some nice model kits for vehicles and such

[weswood]

I've got a pile of 1/72 scale plastic soldiers, ranging from Vietnam era to modern US & Soviet forces. A pile of vehicles, some Matchbox, some plastic models built by me, and some die cast. As far as I can remember at least 3 HMMWVs, 2 Bradleys (1 diecast, 1 plastic), BTR-80, BTR-60, diecast T80 (maybe), 2 or 3 M113s, a handful of civilian motorcycles and even a horse drawn WWII era howitzer.

I even have my version of the Vistula Queen. I've never liked the pointed bow, so mine is squared off.

What I don't have is any players!!!!!

[Tegyrius]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

Holy cats, Empress has some nice model kits for vehicles and such

I have a pack of their SAS shooters sitting on my desk right now. Trying to work up my courage - I'm not a good enough painter to give these figures the work they deserve. The pics on Empress' site really don't do them justice.

Ambush Alley Games has a really good directory of current producers of modern and Cold War figures and vehicles, broken down by scale:

http://ambushalleygames.com/resources/miniatures

- C.

[DCausey]

Empress does make nice stuff.

That Ambush Alley link was where I was thinking for info on the 25/28mm. Thanks for posting it.

nate, I got confused on the scale of figures you were talking about. Cy Girls, Dragon, and Sideshow are nice indeed! I have a modern 75th Regiment Ranger that took 12 hours just to dress because he had so much gear, but he's great, he looks like he stepped out of a news photo or maybe Modern Warfare 2.

[natehale1971]

The figures are 1/6th scale.

the 12" figures are classified as 1/6th scale... and if you do your shopping through ebay you can find pretty much ANYTHING on there for the figures. Going from nude bodies, specialized head sculpts (you can get YOUR OWN HEAD done by these people for a figure), mini-books and toys for the figures, it's amazing what you can get to make diaromoas.

For a long time i tried to talk my fellow players to get these figures to make 'action figures' of our characters for every game we had. But nobody took me up on that one... even after they saw how good my character looked done up as a 1/6th scale action figure...

[DCausey]

I would love to do up a 1/6th as a T2K character! You can even get Russian guns and gear if you needed it, it would be so cool.

[natehale1971]

Originally Posted by DCausey

I would love to do up a 1/6th as a T2K character! You can even get Russian guns and gear if you needed it, it would be so cool.

heck... you can get russian/soviet uniforms as well. you can make a T2k character from ANY side of the fight with 1/6th scale, and you can be even more detailed than in drawings or any other scale. It just will cost you around $100 to $200 if you go REALLY detailed.

[weswood]

One of my other hobbies was collecting 1/6 figures, got about 50 on display, and a huge pile of leftover stuff. I stayed away from modern military though. Then it just got too expensive.

I found a LAV in 1/72, can't remember if it's a LAV 75. I found it at Target a while back.

[natehale1971]

Originally Posted by weswood

One of my other hobbies was collecting 1/6 figures, got about 50 on display, and a huge pile of leftover stuff. I stayed away from modern military though. Then it just got too expensive.

I found a LAV in 1/72, can't remember if it's a LAV 75. I found it at Target a while back.

Have you seen the vehicles that have been done in 1/6th scale? Those things are really, really good. But damn are they expensive.

[weswood]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

Have you seen the vehicles that have been done in 1/6th scale? Those things are really, really good. But damn are they expensive.

I've got a couple jeeps, 2 Soldiers of the World, not too detailed, and a 21st Century jeep that's fairly detailed. Nothing like the Dragon ones though. At one time Hasbro put out a HMMWV that looked good, but was in the over $100 range.

The money is why I got out of it, I could buy decent figures for $25-$50 with the occassional $75 one, now it seems the norm runs around $100.

[natehale1971]

Yeah.. that's been my poblem too.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

If it makes you guys feel any better, things aren't much sunnier on the fantasy front.

WotC did their whole "here's prepainted plastic minis" thing, most of which I never liked. But the tin and antimony and lead that is in "white metal" minis skyrocketed because the Chinese are using huge amounts of those base metals in their construction (and, in the case of lead, their food and toys they ship to the US...but I digress...), so the price of minis in general went through the roof. Of course, that was from 2003-2008. Then in 2008 and thereafter, oil prices have started to skyrocket (that unnatural little dip in '08 aside), so, guess what happened to the plastic minis? Thaaaaaat's right! Bam, up through the roof, too.

I used to be able to buy a handful of orcs or men at arms or whathaveyou on ebay for $.99 each. Now single plastic D&D minis are like $2-$2.50 and it's getting worse. Reaper started out with a line of prepainted plastic minis...and they've just about shut it down to a trickle because of the cost of plastic.

Sucks, I tell you...

[B.T.]

Hi guys,

hopefully it'll work this time

[B.T.]

Sorry for double-posting, but I was not shure, if I could really post the picture. And man, it is huge ...

The mini is in 1/35 scale. The majority of the pieces is from Dragon and Tamiya. I've tried to build a captain of the 5th. Inf.Div. in a more or less "standard" uniform. He is armed with a M16/M203 combo and a M9 pistol in the ambidextrous M12 holster. He carries his 40mm grenads in an older pouch on his belt and in the Vietnam-era style plastic 3-cell carrier. His helmet is scrounged, supposingly from a former policeman. On the back of his helmet the "Red Diamond" of the 5th division has been painted on. A buttpack (not visible in this shot, but I'll give it another try, if you like) on his back is the only item on that mini, I had made out of greenstuff.

The mini is part of a group I did about 14 years ago, but never found the time to set them in a diorama. I wanted to have some figures, to show players, how their characters might look like. As I'm not that good in sketching/drawing, as Nate is, I had to go with the minis
The jacket (or is it a blouse?) is painted in the "urban cammo" style. I'm not shure, if it would have been fielded in reality, but I like the style. And it was fun to paint. I can see uniform pieces like this on a lot of ETO soldiers. Maybe, at least in my Twilight world, there will even be a clothing vest, like they were used in 3/6 color DCU, to put on the PASGT jackets, we will see.

Comments are very welcome.
Thanks for watching.

[DCausey]

Very dramatic! You did a very good job on the figure. I really like the camo, why wouldn't they issue Urban Camo, with all the urban combat the armies must have seen?

Excellent job!

- Dave

[B.T.]

Some more pictures:

[Raellus]

That's some nice work, BT. You've certainly got some skills.

On my monitor, I can barely tell the difference between the standard woodland-pattern BDUs and the urban cammo. I didn't notice it until you guys started discussing it.

The guy with the woodland pattern top, tiger-stripe bottoms, WWII-era helmet, and cammoed G3 w/scope is an interesting figure. What's his story?

One suggestion, though. That captain might not want to advertise his rank so openly. Those bars on his helmet are going to be attracting snipers' bullets, I am sure.

[weswood]

Excellent work.